Category: Phantasy Star Online 2

Phantasy Star Online 2: Icon Changes

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Sakai updated this morning with the third revolution for Phantasy Star Online 2, which is its ultimate character creation! But instead of going through the whole thing, lets jump to the important parts highlighted in the post.

 

Phantasy Star Online 2 characters have a one piece suit, stats are no longer tied to the outfit like in the first alpha test. Instead, units, which you attach to your arm, back, and legs, will improve the defensive stats for the character. If you like the unit's stats but you aren't so happy with the way it looks on your character, you can turn off the graphics displaying your units.

Cast bodies consist of their Head, Arm, Torso, and Legs, and you can now change each part through morphing which was a feature the first alpha test did not have.

 

Alpha Test 2 Iconography

Today's porori images are the improvements to the icons which were a big complaint in the first alpha test. He'll only show a small portion of the changes for today.

The icons in the first alpha test were difficult to understand and identify from one another. They changed the icons by removing the weapon abbreviation, then made the backgrounds more simplistic so you can see the icon's representation more clearly. The icons for weapons, units, costumes, etc, were all redesigned to make them more distinct in each category.

 

They made it so you can tell each weapon's fighting style more clearly by changing the brilliance of the color on the icon. You can see that there is an orange glow for striking weapons, blue for ranged weapons, and yellow for force weapons. (This color brilliance is also applied to the drop icons.)

Photon arts, skills, and consumption item icons are now redesigned to be closer in direction towards Phantasy Star Online.

 

You can feel the presence of PSO in these icons.

 

Photon Arts Icons

By giving the icons a more simplistic style, you can easily point out the photon art's effect and what weapon category they each belong to. Ranged weapon photon arts like the "Grenade Shell" in the screenshot above have a blue background on them. Skills that you can add to the sub-palette are now more distinct from photon arts, in that, skill icons will have a brighter background.

 

Die-Cast Metal Elenor

A brand new Die-Cast Metal Elenor toy has been announced and will be displayed at Bandai's Tamashii Nation 2011 event. This is only a prototype model.

 

This Elenor has different accessories and mags too.

 

Saber and Red Handgun, item box and even meseta.

 

And look a chat box!

It is a different molded approach from the Ver. APSY models. The model and the accessories may go under some revisions before its public release.

Phantasy Star Eternal Planets Launches and More

Ricardo 7 Comments

Yesterday marked the launch of Phantasy Star Eternal Planets which is currently running on the Yahoo Mobage site. 

Phantasy Star Eternal Planets is a social game that can be played on the web browser. The player is a member of Little Wing who is tasked with searching planets, finding items, and leveling up characters. Though you will see familiar things in past games like the monsters, items, and characters, this game is not an action rpg, the battles are run automatically. It is meant to be enjoyed in a short amount of time.

Battles are in front view perspective and you can set them to battle automatically or manually.

 

 

A new feature since the Closed Open Beta, is the "VR Battle Arena" which allows one to compete against a CPU of the other player's party. You can enter the Battle Arena after level 10. 

 

 

 Sakai at Korea Interview

Sakai was interviewed by THIS IS GAME, a Korean gaming news site, and commented about Phantasy Star and the future of the series. However, these ideas are concepts that he may or may not go through with.

Shougai had the interview in Japanese which I guess they translated from Korean.

  • They plan to start Alpha Test 2 in early 2012, PSO2 was originally supposed to release in 2011, but during the first alpha test, they had some trouble with the game servers. They decided to push back the release of the game to spend more time fixing it.
  • They know that PvP is important to Korean players, but in Japan, the demand for PvP is not as high. In the Japanese version, PvP won't be added initially after the game starts. But when they officially decide on doing a Korean version, then they may think about adding PvP in.
  • Interrupt Events, where they appear, when they occur, and the chances they may occur are all completely random, even the developers can't predict when they happen. 
  • He can't say yet what the game's official specs are, he's still investigating about widening the range (of the graphical capabilities) as much as possible, and certainly, DirectX 9 is supported.

And for the most interesting part, THIS IS GAME asked what will become of the console games for the series?

  • There's no need for you to worry, the Phantasy Star Series will continue to develop.

It sounds like we may be getting new games in the Phantasy Star Series aimed at console gamers.

  • PC Gamers: Phantasy Star Online 2
  • Handheld Gamers: Phantasy Star Victory [Tentative Title]
  • Casual Gamers: Phantasy Star Eternal Planets
  • Console Gamers: Phantasy Star [Title Unknown?]

 

DEEP

Phantasy Star Universe has a brand new song. This song is for Seabed Relics, an area that was released in Phantasy Star Portable 2, but at the time it used an older pre-existing song. On twitter EspioKaos asked the name of the song, but Hideaki Kobayashi didn't finish deciding on a title yet, but thinks he'd could use the word DEEP in there.

This of course is really leading Shougai to speculate a new album like "Songs of Gurhal Oddysey" might be in the works, but in a previous twitter post Hideaki Kobayashi said they haven't decided on making an album yet.

[via shougai]

Phantasy Star Online 2 Starting Weapon Concepts

Ricardo 10 Comments

Sakai updated today about his first trip to Korea and the second revolution as explained below. I'm guessing you shouldn't expect much new information until he's finished with these three revolutions.

 

Revolution 2: High Action Online RPG

The idea of this revolution started by asking if it was possible to take the same level of action from console games and place them into an Online RPG. Even though the Phantasy Star series has added action characteristics like Guard and Evasion, PSO2 has finally added the ability to Jump to the table.

 

 

By introducing Jump, different gameplay tactics can be utilized. You can jump and attack aerial enemies and can even give the final blow while in the air. You can also jump on higher terrain to snipe at enemies. 

 

The game also for the first time in the series utilizes a Third Person Shooter mechanic known as TPS Style. Now you're able to move freely while shooting. In addition you can aim precisely at an enemy's weakpoint during battle, or even shoot at eggs the enemies drop from the sky.

PSO2 also has three classes which have a characteristic that's different from each other. In particular, the urgent evasion (how you evade attacks), is distinct by each class.

The Hunter class is for close combat and their evasive maneuver is called "Step." It allows them to reach behind the enemy very quickly.

Rangers are for mid-range combat and they focus mainly on shooting weapons. Rangers use special bullets to help out Hunters, and provide backup support for the entire party. Their evasion is called the "Dive Roll", allowing them to leap out of the way.

Forces are for long range combat, they have various roles like support, attack, and recovery. Forces have an evasive maneuver called "Mirage Escape", which has a longer duration of invincibility.

 

 Your playstyle changes based on each weapon category too. 

For example, all classes have access to the Gunslash, that lets you shoot and attack from the same weapon.

 

Hunters (at the time of the alpha test) have access to two exclusive weapon categories. Swords can attack surrounding enemies with it's wide attack range.

 

Then there is the Wired Lance that can swing around and throw enemies. 

 

Rangers have exclusive access to the Assault Rifle. It allows them to shoot at long distances, aim for a weakpoint in TPS style, and have access to special bullets. 

 

Forces have rods which they can charge, use technics, and do physical attacks striking the enemy with the weapon itself.

Of course these aren't the only weapon categories for PSO2. What other weapon types will be revealed in the future?

In PSO2, player levels are no more, instead the level of your character is dependent on your class level. By leveling your class, you can apply various skills to open up different features for battle. 

PSO2 also allows one to play with keyboard and mouse, or gamepad, but since neither of these methods were fully complete in the first alpha test, you should expect more improvements in these controlling methods for the second alpha test. 

 

Starting Weapon Concepts!

Today's porori images are the starting weapon concepts for PSO2.

 

Gunslash

 

Sword

 

Wired Lance

 

Assault Rifle

 

Rod

 They will become cooler when you acquire rare weapons!

 

Email Newsletter Signups!

Based on popular demand from Twitter, you are now able to signup for the glorious PSO2 Newsletter for free. You are required to have a SEGA ID, so please use the SEGA ID Signup page if you don't already have one. Please Note: You will need to have basic knowledge of Katakana to sign into the PSO2 Newsletter page.  Those that sign up will also be randomly selected for a spot in the 2nd Alpha Test.

 

 Sakai in Korea

Last Wednesday through Saturday, Sakai took a trip with PSO2 Director Kimura to Korea. They set up their booth at G*Star, a Korean Online Games Show. But wait? Is PSO2 announced for Korea? I'm sure it looks this way at first glance but actually this was just an exhibition. Sakai states that currently they have not yet decided if they will release the game in Korea. And even so, the game hasn't even officially released yet in Japan. 

 

The booth was quite small, they only had 8 stations available, so there were many people waiting in lines. 

 

Here's Kimura eating a chili pepper! Spicy!